Portland Transit Blogging 2010

Times have changed, and some of those blogs have vaporized, others have transformed, and several new transit blogs have appeared.

But one thing that hasn’t changed is that Portlanders still have some of the country’s best transit (despite budget and route-cutting woes of late) and a very active blogging community. I blog about transit sometimes, but the blogs and sites below take transit and transport blogging to the next level:

MAX FAQs has only been around since March of this year, but already it has taught me more about pantograph arcing than I ever thought I’d want to know. MAX FAQs covers not just the geeky aspects of rail transit in Portland, but also provides commentary and the occasional rant. This is my favorite newish Portland transit blog. Read about what the blog is and isn’t: Welcome Aboard.

A new entry in the Portland transit blogging category, Ravings of Trimet Ally is authored by teenager Cameron Johnson. As the blog title suggests, his posts focus on the good things about TriMet. So far the blog also features Pictures of the Day, comments on transit related news stories, and a bit of optimism. Keeping an eye on this blog!

By the same author as the now defunct blog Light rail and I: a love story 28 years in the making . . . , which I linked to in the 2008 roundup, this blog covers much of the same material. Since then EMS has switched from piloting trains to driving buses, however. She still shares her stories, expresses her opinions, and gives a TriMet driver’s point of view to her readers.

Another Portland-focused transit blog that has since moved to Seattle, it covers much of the same material as MAX FAQs, but with a little more opinion generally, and with lots and lots of videos and photos. Chad, aka punkrawker4783, drives for Seattle’s King County Metro, but of course expresses only his own views and opinions at punkrawker blogs on!

Portland Transport has continued to be a conversation about access and mobility in the Portland/Vancouver region. It’s a good starting point for those interested in transit issues in the region. There are many contributors, but the founder of the site, Chris Smith, is the heart and soul and most voluminous poster. The discussions in post comments are more intelligent than your average fare.

Al M is still at it, but where he used to be [in]famous for his video rants, the blog now serves more as a general purpose transit in the news resource. There is still, of course, plenty of Al M’s rantings at Rantings of a Trimbetbus driver.

TriMetiquette‘s posting frequency has slowed down a bit since it blazed out of the gates in 2008 with stories on riding etiquette, service alerts, and coverage of regional transit news, but still has lots of good stuff in the archives, and hopefully Christian will kick it into gear again. Also it still has the best name.

And of course there’s our 10-minute magazine, which comes in the mail for about $1.16 a month and has features on the best and worst seats on the MAX, cheap car-free camping trips and the backroom decisions behind TriMet’s service cuts. I think it’s pretty sweet.